Reflection Midway

I was really impressed with some of the technology that they had out there in Midway. Almost every classroom has a microphone system for the teacher to use while she is teaching. It just hangs around her neck while she teaches so it doesn't get in the way. There is also a microphone that you can pass around to the students if they are presenting or if they are giving an answer. This way everyone can hear and the teacher doesn't have to speak loudly. There was also a CD/Cassette player with headphones that the students can use to listen to stories while they followed along. There were also six computers along one of the walls that the students work on everyday during reading centers. They seem pretty proficient and enjoy using the technology. I think I might use the video we watched in class today and have the students either write something about it or write a sequel to it. they can even writ the movie from the aliens perspective or the monsters perspective.

Technology Integration in Literacy

Readers' Workshop
Attributes: Theater performance of a work that was read.
Increases fluency and prosody
helps with comprehension (retelling and acting out)
gets everyone involved
allows those who may struggle with reading feel successful in another way
why a text is written
Technology:
Videotape their performance: shows the importance of plays and the advantage of performing; rehearsal and costumes-show to another class or at parent night.
Show clips of people acting to help enhance their own acting abilities. Choose clips that are pertinent to the story you are acting out with the same emotions or situations. This will not only help their acting, but it will also help them bring other stories to life and increase prosody as they read stories in the future.
Shared Reading:
Attributes: text needs to be accessible to everyone, predictable, point to words and follow along, students can actively participate.
Technology: ELMO, digital story telling (introduce book), powerpoint, promethium board
Read Aloud
Attributes: Little bit of a harder level, teach fluency, motivate students to enjoy books, comprehension
Technology: Book trailer, author studies (google earth), storyboards, digital recording using different expressions (interpret expression)
Shared Writing
Attributes: Teachers and students collaborate and negotiate ideas, teacher writes students' ideas.
Technology: SMART board, ELMO, digital pictures for ideas, projector (computer images), internet for details/info, powerpoint, watch video and write a story about it or the sequel.
Guided Reading
Attributes: Small group instruction, everyone has text, mumble voices, picture walk, predictions, phonics mini-lessons
Technology: Narrated powerpoint, Just use tech at beginning
Writer's Workshop
Technology: Use a blog! Yoohoo!

That's right . . . I made my own virtual tour on Google Earth

Although this project was insanely time consuming, it was totally worth it. I made sure to use material that I could potentially use in the practicum coming up next week, and I think the kids would really like it. Heck, I had fun going through it. And of course I added a clip from Disney. Anywho, I took a look at Courtney's about the Revolutionary War and thought it was such a good way to help the students understand where things happened and why it was such a big deal. I couldn't get her video to pop up, but it just goes to show that you can't always count on technology.  I also checked out Alisia and Austin's tour which just proved how you can use Google Earth for practically anything, even local things. This especially would get the kids excited because they are familiar with these places. Overall, this was an awesome activity and I think it would be a very useful tool in my future classroom. 

Google Earth . . . pretty sweet

Today we really got to jump into Google Earth. The only time I've used it before was to find my house, so that's the only thing I really knew how to do. This class period was basically a whole new experience for me. I really appreciated that we just got to explore a bit before we got into the instruction because we were able to get familiar with it. There are so many ways you can apply this to teaching. First of all, just to get familiar with it and to be able to explore on their own, the students could look up their own houses. They'd get a kick out of that. Heather found a really good kmz on the Civil War, so you could guide the students through those events. I remember studying ancient civilizations in elementary school especially Egypt. We learned about irrigation and why the people decided to live there. There was a great kmz about the Nile showing the most fertile parts of it. I think it would also be fun to have the students put together a tour of a book we were reading or a period in history that we were studying and then present it to the class. Basically the options are endless. You could even incorporate it into your relief society lesson and show all the temples throughout the world. Heather found it and it was sweet. Overall I'm pretty excited to use this not only in my classroom, but with my family, planning trips, and preparing lessons and presentations.

Digital Storytelling

I attribute this story to my dearest roommate Steffy Sue. She wrote this story for her Astronomy class a few weeks ago and she gave me permission to use it for this assignment. When she first read it to us, we knew that it needed to be made into a children's book. But we made it into a movie instead! Go figure. Anywho, thanks Steph!




I loved looking at my peers' digital stories. Each one was unique and had something different to offer to students. I liked how the group read things together in Tara's story. This could help develop collaboration between the students in our future classrooms. I loved the pictures that were used in Mallory's story and then the tie to teacher and her students at the end. Both of these stories were by the same author and I liked them both so I think I'll have to look into reading some more of his books. I also thought that the music in the background really added to the mood of the movie. I also watched one of "Where the Wild Things Are" and it had some pretty scary background music that set the tone for the rest of the storytelling. I also watched a book trailer for "Charlotte's Web." It was nice to see something different besides just telling a story. It was creative and fun. Definitely an idea that can easily be applied in the classroom. For example, students might be grouped into different reading levels and be reading different books. Using photostory, each group could create a book trailer for the book that they read. This allows for creativity and time for them to learn how to work together in groups. It would also be a good, creative way to assess if the students understood what they read. Creating a book trailer would probably be more efficient to assess because you don't have to create anything besides the photo story if you are just story telling.

Storyboards

This week we started our storyboard projects. I was really excited when we started going over what the project entailed and as we watched examples that others had done. What a great idea and tool to use with your students to make language arts more exciting! Heather and I met outside of class to put our story together because we are using a story that my roommate wrote for her Astronomy class. It's a really fun and original story. Heather and I did find that it sure takes a lot of time to put these kinds of things together. If you were going to do it in your classroom, it would definitely be a project that took a couple of weeks. As a teacher I feel it would still be a good tool as long as you really planned for it. The kids would absolutely love it and it would be a change from the normal Language Arts lesson. I'm excited to get further training on this next week, so that I can better help my students understand how to do it.